Risky health behaviors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use, unprotected sex, and poor diets and sedentary lifestyles (leading to obesity) are a major source of preventable deaths. This chapter overviews the theoretical frameworks for, and empirical evidence on, the economics of risky...

Domestic violence remains a serious public problem, especially in Hispanic communities, where one in three women are victims of domestic violence in their lifetimes. Yet, less than 50 percent of Hispanic women report the incidents, indicating lack of confidence in the police and fear they might...

Domestic violence remains a serious public problem, especially in Hispanic communities, where one in three women are victims of domestic violence in their lifetimes. Yet, less than 50 percent of Hispanic women report the incidents, indicating lack of confidence in the police and fear they might...

Economics has long studied how consumers respond to the disclosure of information about firms. We study a case in which the disclosed information is unrelated to the product or firm leadership, but which could still potentially affect consumer patronage through the mechanism of repugnance, as...

This paper presents estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources...

Many former prisoners return home to the same residential environment, with the same criminal opportunities and criminal peers, where they resided before incarceration. If the path to desistance from crime largely requires knifing-off from past situations and establishing a new set of routine...

More than 6.4 million U.S. properties entered foreclosure between 2007 and 2009. Among the dire consequences of foreclosure is a possible increase in crime. Foreclosures and the subsequent property vacancies and residential turnover may affect community crime rates by increasing opportunities...

This study presents an empirical and quantitative study of the causes of variation in the crime rate at the municipal level. To this end, using an historical perspective, the primary sources of municipal data used were the homicide rate in 1962, the budget expenditures intended for the...

In the last thirty years, economists have been applying their tools and methods to the study of crime deterrence. In this paper, we review their most important contributions. <P> Depuis une trentaine d'années, les économistes ont appliqué leurs outils et leurs méthodes au problème de la...</p>

We use a panel dataset of around 3.500 rural households from Southeast Asia and investigate evidence on crime victimization. More concretely, we ask (1) to what extent are rural people in Thailand and Vietnam affected by crime? And (2) what factors determine rural crime victimization? We use the...